Only four lower seeds won in women’s while 10 did in men’s

Posted By
John Henderson
On
March 19, 2012 @ 10:05 am
In
College Basketball,College Sports |
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Some random thoughts on the NCAA Women’s Tournament while prying couch leather off my behind after watching 40 hours of basketball:

The biggest battle facing women’s basketball in its quest to grow its audience is parity. March Madness just isn’t that mad in the women’s game. In the first round, lower seeds won only four of 32 games: No. 9 Florida over No. 8 Georgia, No. 11 Kansas over No. 6 Nebraska, No. 11 Gonzaga over No. 6 Rutgers and No. 13 Marist over No. 4 Georgia. And Gonzaga beat Rutgers in Spokane.

The men, meanwhile, had 10 lower seeds win. That includes two No. 15 seeds, Norfolk State and Lehigh. No 15th seed in the history of women’s basketball could get me to do what I did Friday night: stand in a pizzeria in the Highlands and scream at a flat-screen TV on the wall, soon getting the whole place cheering for Lehigh.

That’s because no 15th seed has ever won a women’s tournament game. No 14th seed has, either. I’m sorry, but the first round of the women’s tournament is truly dreadful.

If you’re looking for potential upsets in the second round tonight and tomorrow, check out No. 7 DePaul over No. 2 Tennessee, which must play near DePaul’s campus in Chicago;No. 13 Marist over No. 5 St. Bonaventure, which looked dreadful against Florida Gulf Coast; and No. 11 Gonzaga over No. 3 Miami (Fla.) which plays in Spokane and suspended second-leading scorer Riquna Williams before the tournament.

Article printed from
The Field House:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/colleges